TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors impacting the rapid transition of anatomy curricula to an online environment in response to Covid-19
AU - Bauler, Laura D.
AU - Lesciotto, Kate M.
AU - Lackey-Cornelison, Wendy
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine; Grant number: 800.022
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Association for Anatomy
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many academic institutions had to rapidly transition education to a remote online environment. While a hurdle for most educators, this transition posed an even greater challenge for anatomy educators, many of whom were forced to depart from the traditional cadaver-based laboratory to a virtual format. Recent publications have discussed the rapid transition to online formats necessitated by Covid-19 and the accompanying difficulties, but none have identified specific factors that influenced the difficulty of this transition. Anatomy educators were surveyed to examine how this transition was accomplished and perceived. Of the 165 educators who responded, the majority utilized cadaver-based laboratory instruction. Educators felt that transitioning the laboratory portion of their courses was significantly more difficult and required more time than converting lecture materials. Factors that impacted the difficulty of the transition included a number of pedagogical aspects of the pre-Covid-19 curricula, including the delivery format of prior content, availability of pre-existing electronic materials, and the laboratory technique previously used. Additionally, the length of time an educator had been teaching prior to Covid-19 impacted their perception of difficulty, with newer and more senior educators finding this much more challenging than mid-tenure educators. Ease of transition may be related to previous exposure to curricular reform, experience with multiple anatomy pedagogies, and educator adaptability. While not surprising that converting a cadaver-based laboratory to an online format was challenging, knowledge of the alignment of this difficulty with prior educator pedagogy can help guide future innovations to anatomy education.
AB - Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many academic institutions had to rapidly transition education to a remote online environment. While a hurdle for most educators, this transition posed an even greater challenge for anatomy educators, many of whom were forced to depart from the traditional cadaver-based laboratory to a virtual format. Recent publications have discussed the rapid transition to online formats necessitated by Covid-19 and the accompanying difficulties, but none have identified specific factors that influenced the difficulty of this transition. Anatomy educators were surveyed to examine how this transition was accomplished and perceived. Of the 165 educators who responded, the majority utilized cadaver-based laboratory instruction. Educators felt that transitioning the laboratory portion of their courses was significantly more difficult and required more time than converting lecture materials. Factors that impacted the difficulty of the transition included a number of pedagogical aspects of the pre-Covid-19 curricula, including the delivery format of prior content, availability of pre-existing electronic materials, and the laboratory technique previously used. Additionally, the length of time an educator had been teaching prior to Covid-19 impacted their perception of difficulty, with newer and more senior educators finding this much more challenging than mid-tenure educators. Ease of transition may be related to previous exposure to curricular reform, experience with multiple anatomy pedagogies, and educator adaptability. While not surprising that converting a cadaver-based laboratory to an online format was challenging, knowledge of the alignment of this difficulty with prior educator pedagogy can help guide future innovations to anatomy education.
KW - cadaver-based laboratory
KW - curriculum transition
KW - dissection
KW - gross anatomy education
KW - medical education
KW - online learning
KW - prosection
KW - remote learning
KW - virtual learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125037282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ase.2163
DO - 10.1002/ase.2163
M3 - Article
C2 - 34898018
AN - SCOPUS:85125037282
SN - 1935-9772
VL - 15
SP - 221
EP - 232
JO - Anatomical Sciences Education
JF - Anatomical Sciences Education
IS - 2
ER -